Small favors lead to referrals

March 3, 2020 by
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You want referrals but you may not be comfortable asking for them.

Try this instead:

Instead of asking for referrals, ask your list for a small favor.

Something easy to do.

Like forwarding your email or sharing your link. Or replying to your email and telling you which title (for your next article, for example) they like best. Or, asking your list to recommend a good hotel or restaurant in a city you’ll be visiting for the first time.

Why is this a good idea?

When you ask for a small favor, you invoke the psychological principle of ‘consistency’ which says that people tend to act consistently with how they’ve acted before.

If they’ve done a favor for you, they begin to think of themselves as someone who does favors for you.

Which can eventually lead to referrals.

Try it. Send your list a short email and ask for a favor. Then, thank the people who helped out or sent suggestions or voted for their favorite, and tell everyone what happened, e.g., how you enjoyed the restaurant.

An engaged list is a responsive list, and a good source of referrals.

Engaging your list is a valuable part of email marketing

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing

How much should you charge?

March 2, 2020 by
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How do you determine your fees?

No doubt you consider your overhead, how much you want to earn, and how much other lawyers charge.

But there’s something else you should consider:

How much is it costing the prospective client who doesn’t get the benefits and outcomes you offer?

How much are they spending in direct costs, lost opportunity costs, and emotional costs?

If a business owner isn’t collecting money owed to them, how much are they losing each month?

If a estate planning client doesn’t have the protections they need, how much are they putting at risk and how much could it cost their estate if they die or become incapacitated?

If a family law client is seeing a therapist to deal with unresolved emotional issues, how much are they spending each month?

When you know what the prospective client is spending or risking, you can show them how your services provide a better value.

People make “buying” decisions based on emotions and then justify those decisions based on logic.

If you can show them how hiring you actually saves them money, the logic becomes undeniable.

How to take a quantum leap in your practice

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing

I won’t give up, I won’t give in

February 28, 2020 by
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Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t have what you want.

You want what you want and you should have it.

And you will, if you do what needs to be done.

It may take longer than you thought. It may take skills you don’t have. It may take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, or. . . it may not.

It may not take hard work or massive action. It may just take a different strategy.

Confucius said, “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

Don’t give up. Don’t give in. You want what you want and you will have it.

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Filed Under: Inspiration

Would you like a copy?

February 27, 2020 by
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Would you rather send information to prospective clients or have them ask you to send them information?

The answer is obvious.

When people ask you to send them something, or tell them something, or do something, not only do they give you permission to send the information, they identify themselves as “interested”.

Which means they are a better prospect than someone those who don’t ask.

How do you get people to ask?

By asking them a question.

After you mention your offer or benefits, you could say:

  • Would you like to know more about this?
  • Would you like to see some examples of how people have stopped [this problem]?
  • Do you want me to send you the checklist/report/form I mentioned?

You can ask when you speak to a prospective client, in your newsletter, in a live presentation, and anywhere else you connect with people.

Yes, you could make it a statement–“Give me your email and I’ll send you the report”–and there is value in telling people what to do. But asking a question works a bit better because it calls for an affirmative response.

When they say “yes, send me the information,” they are more likely to review what you send them, because “they asked for it”.

How to use email to build your practice

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Work on your strengths

February 26, 2020 by
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Tennis champ Roger Federer once said:

“In your professional life, I think it’s far better to be very, very good at one or two things and just marginal at the rest than to be merely good at lots of things.

“Working on your weaknesses makes you a complete player, but you won’t be dangerous anymore. That’s why I work on strengths.”

What are your strengths? What do you do best? Where would you consider yourself an expert?

Whatever it is, if you want to be ‘dangerous,’ continue working on improving your strength.

If you’re good at building rapport with people, for example, if that’s one of your strengths, you should work on mastering that skill.

Practice it. Research it. Study it. And talk to others who share that skill.

You may do this already. But are you totally committed to it?

When you come across information you know relative to your strength, do you dismiss it? Or do you revisit it, think about it and add it to your notes, with comments and links and questions to answer?

When you wake up, do you think about the mundane work tasks for the day, or do you think about what you’ve learned in the books you’re reading or the courses you’re taking that will help you get the extra edge?

Have you scheduled time today, and every day, to work on your skill?

If you want to be world-class, if you want others talking about you, interviewing you, writing profiles about you, and hiring you when there are so many others they could choose, if you want to be the Gerry Spence of your practice area, identify what you’re good at and commit to becoming even better.

Are you good at getting referrals? This will help you get more

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: ,

Email ping-pong

February 25, 2020 by
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We all play it. We go back and forth, forth and back, acknowledging each other’s latest email, letting the other party know their message was received and read and will be acted upon, adding thanks and emoji, and. . . it often wastes a lot of time.

It’s even worse when there are multiple people on the list.

Sometimes, you want a reply so you have a record that your message was received.

But often, you don’t.

How do you let people know they don’t need to reply?

The simplest way is to do that is to end your email with, “NO NEED TO REPLY”.

Four little words that could save you (and the other party) a lot of time.

Some people may perceive this as a statement that you’re not interested in their opinion or point of view, however, so you may want to soften it a bit by saying, “. . .no reply is necessary, I just wanted to keep you informed”.

For people you correspond with regularly, another way to handle this is to add a “short code” to the email subject line.

Examples:

  • NNTR: “No need to reply”
  • NRN: “No reply needed”
  • NRR: “No reply requested”

  • FYI-NNTR: “For your information; no need to reply”
  • NNTO: “No need to open”–when all the information they need is in the subject line, not in the body of the email. For example, APPOINTMENT THURSDAY AT 2PM CONFIRMED. NNTO.

When you DO want a reply, you could add PLEASE REPLY or PLEASE RSVP to the subject line, to call attention to the need for a response.

Whatever code(s) you use, make sure people know what they mean. You might add an explanation or “key” to the footer of your email template to do that.

How do you tell people you want–or don’t want–a reply?

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Law office management

3 marketing fundamentals for every attorney

February 24, 2020 by
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Marketing can get complicated. Metrics, meta-data, KPIs, keyword strategies, and so much more.

If you’re just starting to market your practice, or you like keeping things simple, there are three essential concepts you need to know:

(1) Your ideal client

Who are your ideal clients? What do they look like, where do they live or work, what are their problems (legal and otherwise), and what solutions or benefits do they need or want?

Where do you find them? How will you communicate with them? How do they typically find an attorney who does what you do?

You need to know this and be able to articulate this, especially since one of the hallmarks of an ideal client is the tendency to refer business.

(2) Why you?

Why should a client choose you instead of any other attorney?

This is your “value proposition” or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

What do you do or offer that’s different or better? How are clients better off when they choose you?

What’s the “one thing” you want people to know and remember about you?

(3) Professional relationships

One of the best ways to grow your practice is to develop new alliances with centers of influence in your niche.

What strategic relationships do you you need to develop–for referrals, joint ventures, endorsements, introductions and information?

Look at your existing contacts. What do they do, who do they know, how do they–or can they–help you and your clients, and how can you help them?

Knowing these 3 fundamentals, and focusing on them, can go a long way towards helping you grow your practice.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you what to do.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

If you want someone to tell you more

February 21, 2020 by
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TV detective Colombo was famous for his trench coat, cigar, and glass eye, but even more famous for the way he would get witnesses to reveal things they didn’t intend to reveal.

At the end of the interview, everyone would stand up and get ready to leave, the witness would relax, and just when they thought they’re in the clear, Colombo would turn to them with his trademark, “Just one more thing”.

He would catch the witness off guard and often find out something he could use to solve the crime.

It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that you do something similar when you interview a witness, prospective juror, or anyone else who isn’t being forthcoming.

Many ex-purts tell us to prompt witnesses who don’t say much with, “tell me more,” “what happened next,” or other questions designed to get them to continue talking.

It turns out there’s an even simpler way to get people to tell you more.

Silence.

After someone has answered a question or volunteered information, don’t “fill the empty space” by asking another question–break eye contact, turn to your notes, and say nothing.

Often, a few seconds of silence is so uncomfortable for the witness, they’ll continue talking.

Sometimes, they volunteer precisely the information you were looking for, the very thing they didn’t want you to know.

And you can leave your raincoat and cigar at home.

How to get more referrals from other lawyers

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Filed Under: Communication

Are you a perfectionist?

February 20, 2020 by
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Many lawyers are obsessed with getting the details right. So are many artists and creative people and business leaders.

Perfectionists often create superior results, but their obsession with making things “perfect” often causes them to procrastinate.

Maybe you can relate.

How do you do good work and get better results without getting ensnared in the net of perfectionism?

The answer isn’t to fight your natural tendency, it is to re-focus it.

Instead of obsessing over every detail, train yourself to obsess about the details that matter.

The things that deliver the biggest return on your investment.

The 20% that delivers 80% of your results.

In your writing, that means giving extra attention to your headlines and email subject lines. They do the heavy lifting by getting more people to read what you wrote.

In a negotiation or a closing argument, you don’t have to win ever point or collect every dollar, as long as you’re getting enough to be able to call it a win.

In your marketing campaigns, you don’t have to attract everyone with a problem you can solve, as long as you’re attracting a preponderance of your ideal clients.

There will always be room to improve, but if you’re getting good results, let go of the things that aren’t important (or delegate them) so you can focus on what’s important and what you do best.

You don’t have to be good all marketing if you’re good at getting referrals

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Filed Under: Productivity, success Tagged With: , ,

Where to sit in a meeting

February 19, 2020 by
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What’s the best place to sit in a conference room? It depends on the role you’re playing in the meeting, or the role you want to play.

This 12 minute video explains the science behind the options we face when we choose where to sit.

Many of these insights are obvious, but there are some interesting ideas you may be able to use in your next meeting.

Note, this covers general meetings, (board meetings, staff meetings), not adversarial encounters, (deposition, arbitration, negotiation), but some ideas are useful in those situations, too.

If you have a lot of meetings and you want to finesse the seating arrangements, this video can help.

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Filed Under: Law office management
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